Proceedings ICPW'07: 2nd International Conference on the Pragmatic Web, 22-23 Oct. 2007, Tilburg: NL

Proceedings ICPW'07: 2nd International Conference on the Pragmatic Web, 22-23 Oct. 2007, Tilburg: N

Aligning business and information systems thinking: a cognitive approach

Business-information systems (IS) alignment has become an important strategic imperative for organizations competing in the global economy. Recent research (Reich and Benbasat [56]) indicates that building a shared understanding between business and IS executives is one way of strengthening this alignment. This paper describes a study that examines the cognitive basis of shared understanding between business and IS executives. Using Personal Construct Theory (Kelly [36]), this study uses cognitive mapping techniques to explore the commonal-ities and individualities in the cognition between these executives. Eighty business and IS executives in six companies participated in this study. The results indicate that a higher level of cognitive commonality is positively related to a higher level of business-IS alignment. This is supported by findings that greater diversity in cognitive structure and cognitive content of business and IS executives coincide with a lower level of alignment. Implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed

Four Lessons in Versatility or How Query Languages Adapt to the Web

Exposing not only human-centered information, but machine-processable data on the Web is one of the commonalities of recent Web trends. It has enabled a new kind of applications and businesses where the data is used in ways not foreseen by the data providers. Yet this exposition has fractured the Web into islands of data, each in different Web formats: Some providers choose XML, others RDF, again others JSON or OWL, for their data, even in similar domains. This fracturing stifles innovation as application builders have to cope not only with one Web stack (e.g., XML technology) but with several ones, each of considerable complexity. With Xcerpt we have developed a rule- and pattern based query language that aims to give shield application builders from much of this complexity: In a single query language XML and RDF data can be accessed, processed, combined, and re-published. Though the need for combined access to XML and RDF data has been recognized in previous work (including the W3C’s GRDDL), our approach differs in four main aspects: (1) We provide a single language (rather than two separate or embedded languages), thus minimizing the conceptual overhead of dealing with disparate data formats. (2) Both the declarative (logic-based) and the operational semantics are unified in that they apply for querying XML and RDF in the same way. (3) We show that the resulting query language can be implemented reusing traditional database technology, if desirable. Nevertheless, we also give a unified evaluation approach based on interval labelings of graphs that is at least as fast as existing approaches for tree-shaped XML data, yet provides linear time and space querying also for many RDF graphs. We believe that Web query languages are the right tool for declarative data access in Web applications and that Xcerpt is a significant step towards a more convenient, yet highly efficient data access in a “Web of Data”

Consumption of Organic Foods from a Life History Perspective: An Exploratory Study of British Consumers

This report provides an account of the analysis of in-depth qualitative interviews which explored the concepts, stories and theories mentioned by respondents in their discourses about organic food. It employs a biographical narrative approach in order to understand behaviour (using observation of shopping trips) and derives some conclusions regarding future development of the organic market in the UK

Scholarly publishing and argument in hyperspace

The World Wide Web is opening up access to documents and data for scholars. However it has not yet impacted on one of the primary activities in research: assessing new findings in the light of current knowledge and debating it with colleagues. The ClaiMaker system uses a directed graph model with similarities to hypertext, in which new ideas are published as nodes, which other contributors can build on or challenge in a variety of ways by linking to them. Nodes and links have semantic structure to facilitate the provision of specialist services for interrogating and visualizing the emerging network. By way of example, this paper is grounded in a ClaiMaker model to illustrate how new claims can be described in this structured way

South African Farmers’ Perceptions of the Benefits and Costs of Complying with EUREPGAP to Export Fresh Citrus to the European Union (EU)

A representative stratified random sample of 100 South African farmers from across all production regions that export fresh citrus to the EU were surveyed during 2007-2008 to document their perceptions of the benefits and costs of complying with EUREPGAP standards on citrus exports. Principal Component Analysis identified six broad dimensions of internal benefits as improved operating/technical performance; regulations compliance and intra-business benefits; gains in competitiveness; regulations compliance and new market access; benefits from existing markets; and to overcome non-tariff barriers to entry. Two further dimensions of supply chain benefits identified by PCA were improved business working relationship and product quality benefits, and improved cooperation and contractual benefits. The sampled growers thus perceive operational, technical, safety, management, monetary, marketing and supply chain benefits from certification. The major costs of implementing EUREPGAP certification related to initial investment costs and the recurrent annual costs of compliance. The respondents, on average, spent R70510 on initial compliance costs, mainly for infrastructure, additional buildings and employees training. Some 60% of respondents spent less than 1% of annual farm turnover on initial compliance costs, while most of the respondents (84%) spent less than 1% of annual farm turnover on recurrent costs of compliance. Growers that owned a pack-house had statistically significantly higher initial and annual costs of compliance. The intra- and inter-firm benefits and costs of compliance identified by these results indicate factors that policymakers, and the Citrus Growers’ Association of Southern Africa, can focus on to improve the competitiveness of SA fresh citrus exports to the EU.South African fresh citrus exports, European Union, perceived benefits and costs, EUREPGAP compliance, Farm Management,